Dress Please

By now you all know I love a good deal. I love to thrift store shop, visit garage sales, and rummage through my neighbor’s junk when we have bulky item pick up. Most of my home is either filled with second-hand goods from Craigslist, thrift stores, garage sales, or straight up out of a trash pile.

While visiting a thrift store, I came across this striped, color block dress. I really wanted it, but it was a few sizes too big. Don’t you hate when that happens? Especially when the dress is half off, coming to a grand total of $2!

I decided to take it home anyways and try my hand at alterations. I have made a few v-neck tees for my son from my husband’s old tees, but I have never sewn women’s clothing before. Plus, the last time I attempted some tees for my son, I just about threw my sewing machine out the window.

Thankfully everything went smoothly this time around. I shortened the sleeves and took off extra fabric on both sides. Now my $2 thrifted dress is summer ready!

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Your Trash Is My Treasure

The time has come once again where people rid themselves of their junk through a program our city puts on called Bulky Items Pickup. It’s a free service where all you have to do it leave your junk on the curb and everything is then taken away. I like to call this, the time I snoop around the neighborhood and score free things. I love this time of the year! In the past I have found an old, rusty, wire basket that I made into a hanging pendant light above my kitchen table, which you can find here. I also found this super cute wooden kids picnic table, which is still a pending project (hopefully a before and after will be featured soon). Another thing I found was a fabulous chair I have inside my house, pictured here.

I am always surprised at the things people throw out. I guess it sometimes takes a creative mind to see potential in junk and lucky me, I see it!

I was out on a bike ride with my son and I found the coolest vintage trunk that I just had to have. But since I wasn’t able to haul it off on my bike, someone else beat me to it. Bummer. Later that day I took a drive around to see what else I could find and that is when I was introduced to this lovely little lady. Well, I guess the before isn’t too exciting. Although I must admit as she was sitting in my house for a good week untouched, her ugliness began to wear on me.

There is a big split across the top and some of the wood was pealing off of the little shelf, which is probably why the previous owners threw her out. But to me, those things don’t matter. I like the extra character it adds to the piece.

So here is the before.

And here is the after!

I almost forgot to tell you the best part…

This project cost me a total of $8!

The paint was left over from a previous project and I already had the sand paper, which I used to help smooth out her rough spots. The 8 bucks was spent on hardware. Thank you Anthropologie for the adorable multi-colored knob!

One of my favorite parts of this project along with the cute knob is the pop of color I added to the little drawer. I feel like it adds so much to this small side table. And like I said earlier, the cost was a total of 8 buckaroos! Now that makes me one happy girl.

p.s. The little yellow picture holder is actually an old two hole paper puncher that I found while thrifting. I decided to give it some more responsibility and I really like how well it has adapted!

A Little Face Lift

About a year ago I made this cute little table for my son. It was something I stumbled upon while browsing some website. Ya know, the one where you pin things and hope to get around to making the things you’ve pinned. Which in my case rarely happens. Which is also why I started a board called “Done. Yep, I created it,” to help motivate me to make the cute things I pin.

Okay, let me get back on track here. We recently got new sofas for our living room and it turns out that the sofas and the table are too close in color, making things feel a little blah. So I decided to change it up. This table is something my son loves and uses everyday, which means it was due for a little makeover.

With three coats of black chalkboard paint and two cans of metallic silver spray paint, this table is sporting a more mature and functional look. Having the chalkboard will be a big help when we work on letters, numbers, and shapes. Plus, it is always fun to add some detail to his cute train set.

DIY No-Sew Throw (sort of)

Thrifting!

Oh how I love thrift stores! Especially when I hit the jackpot. On this particular trip I left with so many awesome finds and most of them looked as though they came from Anthropologie. It was fabulous and the best, most best part about it all is that I only spent $22 on everything!

I love textiles and I kept finding so many blankets, tablecloths and cloth napkins with the best patterns AND in the best colors too! So, let’s begin with my first project…the DIY no-sew throw pillow. No-sew meaning no sewing machine required.

I found some awesome cloth napkins for $1.99 that I knew I couldn’t live without and I knew exactly what their new role would be in my home, a throw pillow for my bed!

If you want to follow along, the materials you need are:

-2 Cloth Napkins

-Embroidery Thread

-Needle

-Scissors

-Pillow Insert

Since the napkins had a fabulous edge around the ends, I wanted to keep that visible which is why I decided to use embroidery thread. So, all you need to do is match your napkins up and stitch along 3 edges leaving the 4th one open so you can insert the pillow or the white stuffing stuff. Once you have the pillow/stuffing inside, stitch that baby closed.

And there you have it! An awesome DIY no-sew throw (sort of) that took you less than 15 minutes to complete!

Enjoy!

p.s. The pinkish/orange throw at the foot of my bed is another fun find that cost me 99 cents! It was labeled a tablecloth but once again I gave this beauty a new identity.

Two Bucks Later

I found an old breakfast in bed tray at a thrift store a while back. Well, more like 2 years ago. I had big dreams for this tray and each attempt was a complete fail. My first thought was to use patterned wrapping paper, but then I realized that the paper was too thin and it bubbled up once I glued it down. Fail. Next, I thought colorful paint samples squares would be cool, plus they are free (pictured above). It was a cool idea just poorly executed. I failed again.

As I was browsing Target’s dollar section I found some cute chevron patterned duct tape. Perfect! Not too thin and I wouldn’t need to glue it down. Win, win. So I brought a roll home and got started. Oh, I forgot to mention that I used an old can of spray paint and changed the base from black to teal.

The process was so easy and quick, but I underestimated the amount of tape I would need by two strips!

Here she is! There will be no more changes made to this cutie..at least while she is mine.

Thirty Dollars Later

Planning our son’s nursery was so much fun for me. I really enjoy decorating a space and even more, a place for my sweet little babe. I still remember the day we put his crib together. Our hound dogs were right along side us, curious about all the new things happening to the room. I washed and folded all his clothes, we stocked up on diapers months before he even arrived, and had all his tiny items neatly organized.

I remember going into his room and I would imagine kissing his sweet little face and holding him for hours. Everything was ready for his arrival. The room was perfect and all it needed was him to complete it. Now, our baby is going to be 2 years old in June! I think time goes by faster once you have kids.

Now that he is getting a bit older, I have been looking into big boy room ideas. The first step would be new paint. We had decided on this Eco Green color by Behr when the room was our den/guest room. While putting his nursery together, I thought about changing the color but decided it looked good with his decor, so we left it. The room doesn’t have great natural lighting so I feel like the color is a bit too dark and I plan on painting it light grey – Hazy Stratus by Valspar.

Here is the new color up on his walls and I am really pleased with the outcome. We had to let the room air out for a few days before our son could sleep in there but once everything was dry I was hanging and organizing his new space. Not much has changed this time around but soon we will work on transitioning our son to a twin bed, which means the sofa will be taken out of his room. That sofa has been a life saver for us over the past year and a half. Our little boy had a lot of trouble sleeping and a lot of the reason why was due to food allergies that we were unaware of. It wasn’t until he was 10 months old that we figured out how many foods he was allergic to, but once we eliminated those foods from his diet he started sleeping much better.

But back to the bedroom. I am loving his new space. The only money spent was on the bucket of paint. Everything we used in his room was either there before or from other rooms in the house.

We switched up the wall art that was above his bed with this United States map made of license plates, which was in my husband’s music room. The framed art work that was above his bed has been moved to another wall above his dresser.

The chair pictured here was one of my bulky items trash pile finds! I was originally thinking about changing it up but it has grown on me just the way it is. It has become part of his reading spot in his room.

And there you have it! The first step in creating a big boy room for our son.

Your Trash Is My Treasure

Do you remember how I told you about my neighborhoods bulky item pickup that happens a few times a year? You can read more about it here. Last year I was out on a walk with my son and I came across this large, rusty, wire basket. There were actually two of them but the other was a little worse off. I regret not getting it now though.

When I first saw the basket I thought it would look great as a pendant light above my kitchen table. Instead the wire basket sat in my garage for about a year. Something I have challenged myself with this new year has been to be more creative and to finish incomplete projects. So I went to the hardware store and bought 3 items: spray paint, wire cutters, and a pendant light kit.

Spray paint is awesome for 2 reasons; it is so easy to use and it is easy on your wallet. Oh wait, I just thought of another reason. It can transform something ugly into something pretty!

I matched the color of spray paint to the pendant. My husband used his strong muscles to cut a round piece out of the basket where I then attached the pendant.

Note: It is crucial that you have a professional inspect your new light fixture. Ya know,  just to be sure that everything is up to code. Looks like we passed the test.

Now here is where things got a little crazy. We have very high ceilings in our kitchen which makes installing light fixtures incredibly stressful. And if you don’t have the correct ladder, things get rigged in order to make the new pendant light happen. A straight ladder leaning up against a pull up station with weights added to the bottom for support is not, I repeat, NOT a good idea. Please do not try this at home. Thank the good Lord in heaven that no one got hurt during the process.

So here she is! The trash I found on the side of the road is now a lovely pendant light fixture above my handmade table (I will share details about that in another post). I LOVE the transformation and I feel like it fits my home better than the original fixture. The only downside to this project is that I went from having 3 60 watt bulbs to just 1. I really like having a lot of light in my house so this has been a bit of a bummer. But I am still really happy with my new DIY $27 pendant light (wire cutters not included in price, which were about $9).

Another picture just for fun because pictures are fun. Enjoy!